November 30, 2009
From Dubai to Athens
Once Dubai declared itself bust the financial world started looking around for the next sovereign risk crisis. The consensus seems to be it's Greece. Unlike Dubai, however, the Greeks have no UAE to automatically bail them out. The EU seems more concerned about the precedent that a bail out might set than with Greek welfare. The rest of the world, despite alluringly high interest rates on Greek debt, doesn't seem much interested either. An improbable Chinese banker deus ex machina gets mentioned, but if the Chinese are already leery of U.S. debt, why should they want to add Greek bonds to their portfolio? Would they really covet the Elgin Marbles in Beijing? Which leaves Athens two choices: either do as the head of the Greek central bank suggests, enact severe austerity measures, and have a many years long recession, or leave the Eurozone and inflate their way back to health. If it were me, I'd choose the latter.
November 29, 2009
Cultural Leanings
The Swiss people have defied their government by voting against having any more minarets in Switzerland. Unexpected by mainstream opinion, this vote is sure to be portrayed in a most unfavorable light, as an unhelpful example of narrow-minded parochialism if not downright racism. But that would be a mistake. All cultures are not relatively equal, nor should we pretend that they are. The Swiss are perfectly justified in wanting to keep what they've got, just as are the French in banning headscarves from classrooms, and as are various international efforts to ban the burqa.
November 28, 2009
Essay at Huffington Post
Just fyi, yesterday evening the Huffington Post published an essay by Roger Morris and me. I'm quite pleased at how it turned out and I hope it makes an impact. Here's a brief back-story, which you may find interesting: When Matthew Hoh resigned Roger suggested to me that we write about it. I agreed. I wrote the first draft, which Roger essentially rewrote (he's a much more elegant, indeed, brilliant, writer). He wanted me to still be the primary author but I made myself the second author. Anyhow, I submitted our piece to the Los Angeles Times. They declined it. The first time they've declined something from me in years — I'm not sure exactly why. Well, we weren't about to give up so I then sent our piece to Arianna Huffington, who was very kind and happy to take it. A first! Please take a look and, if you can, please leave a comment there.
November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving 2009!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love to cook (and eat) good food, have company (occasionally), and take a moment to remember our blessings and give thanks. This year, though, Sharon is on the West coast with one of her sisters and her brother, which leaves me, the dog, and two cats. With so few celebrants I'm cooking a turkey breast — no way to justify a whole bird — mashed sweet potatoes (the dog enjoys them), broccoli (all I can eat), and pecan pie. I'm glad to be alive — it beats being dead — and, to be honest, I'm thankful to have things worth fighting for. And I enjoy the company, as I imagine it, of angels. Here's hoping that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
November 23, 2009
EP Podcast Schedule November/December
I love Leslie Caron — there, I've said it. If I could find a modern Leslie Caron, fifteen years younger than me, smarter than me, and rich, I'd run away with her to Tahiti... Why don't they make them like that anymore?? Well, OK, here's the schedule for the next several weeks. And one other thing: Just as I did last year I'm going to take two weeks off, this year for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's. I need to recharge my batteries, also catch up on my sleep.
This Friday my guest is Michael Sims, talking about the great poet Don Marquis
Non-Profit Status for the Catholic Church?
This evening Bishop Thomas Tobin (Providence, RI) appeared on Hardball to argue for criminal penalties for abortion. Who knows why, because Tobin is a genuine moron. Chris Matthews politely but thoroughly cleaned his clock. In the bigger picture, though, we do know why: because Joseph Alois Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, wants to turn the clock back a few hundred years and, in particular, does not recognize the American tradition of separation of church and state. Indeed, we clearly see Ratzinger's not so diplomatic hand in the Catholic Church's weighing in to support the Stupak amendment. OK, I can live with that. Except that then the Catholic Church in the United States must have its tax-exempt status revoked. Not tomorrow, but immediately!
Rising Seas
It's new news that satellite measurements indicate significant ice loss from the East Antarctic ice sheet (that's about 2/3 of the Antarctic ice mass). Previous and ongoing measurements show continuing loss from the West Antarctic ice sheet, but it makes sense that if the one is melting the other would be as well. What's interesting here is that you don't need a theory of global warming, per se, or mathematical models of any kind, to reasonably predict what will happen next. Observations alone from the past 100 years and more show steadily rising (warming) seas, melting glaciers and, more recently, loss of Arctic sea ice. The planet is warming up and in a certain practical sense it doesn't really matter why. Straight-line projections from warming seas — that would be most of the numbers in the IPCC report — are of concern for rising sea levels, but the other part of it, the ice-melt (mainly from Greenland and Antarctica), is inherently unpredictable: what we do know is that there is definitely a possibility of dramatic, sudden melt and consequently a dramatic, sudden rise in sea level. I would not be at all surprised at a three meter rise before the end of this century, though I doubt that I'll be around to see it. Anyhow, sooner or later it's going to be Goodbye, Miami!
2009 EP Survey Results
First, thanks very much to all 81 of you who completed this year's survey. And I was delighted to see so many responses leavened with humor! Of course, it's not a scientific survey so results should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless it's an interesting picture of, well, you. Here's what we find:
November 17, 2009
More Environmental Insults
Titanium dioxide is a very cheap, very widely used chemical compound. Assumed to be safe. According to new research, however, in nanoparticle form it causes "systemic genetic damage" in mice. The first ever study of titanium dioxide's nanoparticle-induced genotoxicity, undertaken at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, does not look hopeful, with mice showing genetic damage after as few as five days of exposure — nobody, at this point, has any idea what might be the cumulative effect of exposure on humans. Unfortunately, we can't avoid the damn stuff as it's used in everything from cosmetics, to paint, to sunscreen, to vitamins. Another example of how astonishingly stupid it is to rely upon "markets" for consumer safety. Despite the important news I'm extremely skeptical that our political process will catch up to produce any sort of regulation of this or other commercial nanoparticles until we've all been thoroughly poisoned.
November 15, 2009
2009 EP Annual Survey [Now Closed]
Please participate in the 2009 EP survey. In each of the past three years I've taken this non-scientific survey (with minor variations) regarding the interests and demographics of people who visit this site. Responses have always been terrifically helpful for me as I think about what I can do to improve things around here. If you've taken the survey in the past, please take it again for consistency's sake. If you haven't taken the EP survey before please try to take it this time — it's fairly short and should require only about five minutes to complete. Thanks very much for your help! The survey will remain open until November 22d, next Sunday evening. Once it's closed I'll post a summary of interesting results.
November 11, 2009
Dulce et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen (1917)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
November 10, 2009
The Pentagon's Black Hole
By Winslow Wheeler
Did you ever wonder exactly how the Pentagon will spend the $670 billion that President Obama wants it to have this year? So does the Pentagon.
I am not being facetious. Quite literally, the Department of Defense (DOD) does not know what happens to the money the taxpayers give it. This has been true for decades. The money gets spent; it's gone (they're pretty sure), but the prices DOD paid, when — if ever — the purchases were delivered, where everything is now, and a lot more are all quite unknown to the Pentagon.
November 9, 2009
Black Light Power
For years I've been extremely interested in the work of Randall Mills and his company Black Light Power. Mills has developed, he says, a revolutionary way to generate clean power at a fraction of the cost of conventional sources. The problem: the Mills process violates the known laws of physics. For years Black Light Power has been promising commercialization "soon" and, of course, all this time critics have claimed fraud. Well, every now and again I check the Black Light Power site to see what's new and at last it appears to me that commercialization has moved from "soon" to "now." Scoff if you like, but I believe Randall Mills will revolutionize the energy markets.
November 8, 2009
EP Podcast Recognized Again!
For the third year in a row the EP podcast has been named one of ten finalists in the political category at the Annual Podcast Awards competition. In the company of, among others, Real Time With Bill Maher, The Young Turks, and Rush 24/7. Not bad, not bad at all. Thanks, very much, to all the EP listeners who nominated the podcast — as I keep telling you: this project is made possible through your kind support! Next, in the final phase of voting, to be honest we don't stand much of a chance because it's a pure numbers game where shows with a larger audience have a huge built-in advantage. If you do want to vote for EP again, once a day, every day, for the next several weeks, please go right ahead, but I'm very, very happy just to be among the finalists. Yes!
Three Votes
To his great and everlasting credit, Dennis Kucinich (D, OH), voted NO on Speaker Pelosi's health insurance industry protection bill. On a vote of 220 to 215, it would have taken only three other progressives to defeat the bill. Note that Raúl Grijalva (D, AZ), and Lynn Woolsey (D, CA), the co-chairs of the so-called Congressional Progressive Caucus, voted in favor — as did plenty of other Progressive Caucus members. This is a pretty big disconnect: people who call themselves and who are described by others as progressives in the U.S. House of Representatives, aren't. We should remember the roll call from this vote, to be referred to repeatedly, as often as necessary.
November 6, 2009
Got Reform?
What many people fail to understand, even otherwise intelligent people and, indeed, even people whose distinguished careers span decades in government, is that for every major policy there are only a limited number of inflection points. We failed, for example, to get health care reform in 1993-1994; fifteen long years later, if we fail again, we may not get another bite at the apple until after 2012 or, if we're unlucky, 2016 or 2020. We failed in 1964 to de-escalate in Vietnam; we then failed to fully extricate ourselves until our inglorious defeat in 1975, after over 50,000 U.S. military service personnel had been killed in action. We failed during the 1974 oil crisis to take the opportunity to raise taxes on petroleum products; thirty five years later we still have no coherent energy policy. More generally, the Democrats failed to block a series of tax cuts during the Reagan administration, perhaps the largest tax cuts in history; we're still paying the price and nobody dares talk anymore about raising taxes despite the fact that arguments for higher taxes have considerable merit. We failed miserably in 1989 to realize a peace dividend following the end of the Cold War; today Pentagon spending has gotten out of control, the military procurement process having utterly captured the Washington establishment. The list goes on and on.
November 5, 2009
What the Ants are Saying
dear boss i was talking with an ant
the other day
and he handed me a lot of
gossip which ants the world around
are chewing over among themselves
i pass it on to you
in the hope that you may relay it to other
human beings and hurt their feelings with it
no insect likes human beings
and if you think you can see why
the only reason i tolerate you is because
you seem less human to me than most of them
here is what the ants are saying
November 3, 2009
